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The original free unlimited webhost is back

C

Cracker

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NLC
By that I mean Crosswinds (but, Crosswinds free is now referred to as CWahi, probably a reference to Hawaii, and is located at http://www.cwahi.net/ ). Their new free service seems to be based on their original premise of unlimited webspace, unlimited file transfer, and unlimited file size/type (but unfortunately unlimited server sluggishness will probably accompany it like it did before). They also have PHP scripting and subdomains this time too, and this time they also are not ad-free (like the original Crosswinds was). I remember Crosswinds was once one of the best free hosts until around 2001 when everything became incredibly slow following one of their supposed "upgrades." Hopefully, they get it right this time around, for their members' sakes.
 
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It should indeed be interesting to see how they do. I don't like the site design - let's hope that's not an indicator of their success!
 
Very slow to load! And why would someone choose the hosting with ads if the ad-free (coming soon apparently) plan had the same features? :p
 
I think the ad-free plan will cost a small monthly fee, although I don't know why anyone would use THAT if they can just host with the regular crosswinds.net .

As for the website design, I do think it resembles a pre-designed template.

Ricardo, I guess the unlimited server sluggishness is setting in already LOL!!
 
It doesn't have to be sluggish, though - look at T35. A completely stable free and unlimited hosting service for over 10 years now. It all has to do with the way servers are managed.
 
Yeah, but T35 at least has a 500 kb file size limit and a limitation of 1 mb of traffic per 2 HTML page views (to prevent a user from using more bandwidth than their advertisement displays will pay for), so their unlimited is not really unlimited. CWahi has unlimited across the board (unlimited space/data transfer/file size/file type - assuming it's legal), so they're just asking for people to try to host file download sites for free, which will really weigh down the servers.
 
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Oh, I see now. Yeah, that is not good for sure. Abuse will soon follow - if it has not already.
 
I'm probably out of touch with the free hosting reality these days, but I don't know of any free host in the right mind that would have PHP with the safe mode off -- that's just asking for abuse.
 
^^ At one host I run (where I'm a partner, and don't actually manage the technical side of things), we have safe_mode off, but other protections in place to prevent abuse. I don't know exactly how it works - it is on my agenda to find out! So far, though, there have been no problems with this.
 
safe_mode doesn't actually keep anything "safe", it doesn't matter if it's on or off.
As long as you have the server secured, and the risky functions disabled, you'd be good.
 
Yes, Unlimited means Unlimited

Hey All,

I'm the original founder of Crosswinds and the new CWahi (Wahi is village in Hawaiin and it's the core philosophy of the new CW).

The new CWahi is taking a community driven approach - YOU tell us what you want. You vote on priority. We try to do it (some things are simply not economically feasible).

Unlimited does mean unlimited. AS LONG as you follow the basic rules (and we worked hard to make sure we give as much freedom as possible). Costs compared to 1998 are way down - disks are massive, b/w is 20x less expensive and advertising has recovered.

Let me address a couple issues:

2001 - that was the year of the great stupidity when we brought in a so called "expert" that ended up being a bane to Crosswinds - caused us grief, problems, led us astray. He felt we should be in the professional hosting space, brought in lots of signups and it turned out they were all MLMers. NEVER deal with MLMers.

Design - no one is ever 100% happy with design. More people liked it than not so there it is.

Unlimited - yes it's possible on a per user basis because of the law of averages. We don't meter people but we DO watch the biggest consumers. Crosswinds had one fellow that used 25% of all b/w and 10% of all disk and he is still with us in a paid package. He followed the rules. Break them, we toast you.

Sluggishness - we are actively tracking what is causing the sluggishness and we have 2 prime suspects. Normally the pages are loading very quick. But every so often we have issues. One was due to our primary advertising partner losing power at their colo twice in a week.

Ad-free - it's not just ad free. Mysql db's will be provided with them. We simply haven't updated the feature list yet. Ad free will also be given newest stuff first and some exclusive content and tools. Post2Host? Never. We had it right in 1998 in terms of our business model, we just listened to the wrong people and did not have the right gear to start out with. Now, we do :) It is amazing that 4GB drives in 1998 used to cost $1k and I can buy 1TB disks for a couple hundred now.

Weighing down the servers - bandwidth is cheap and static files do not tie up resources - with the right O/S that is :) However, anyone that creates a site purely for the purposes of downloading files will be terminated. The site needs to have some use/function.

PHP? Been working with it since it was created and we keep very close tabs on whats going on. It's safe for the most part. Can exploits happen? Most likely, but we are diligent in applying patches and further hardening our systems against them.

My motivation? To finally do free unlimited right.

With the wrong advice, we screwed it up once by moving away from it. Not this time. The infrastructure is redundant, the costs and revenue is better than ever. I've aged 50 years in the past 10 and put that knowledge to good use.

Time will be the proof, but come check us out. Tell me what you want.

Tony Holmes
Founder Crosswinds.Net/CWahi.Net
 
Just wanted to say - what a great post from Crosswinds. Going to sign up right now for an up and coming site I have.

As for the site design, I think it's fine and serves its purpose well :).

Best of luck with your plans, Crosswinds!
 
Thanks!

I already have feedback on improvements to make on the site and some are already in place. I love user feedback! The more I can give you, the more you'll use it, the more exposure we garner, the more people see it, the more they use it, the more feedback they give... it's a great cycle, once it gets going.

Tony Holmes
Founder Crosswinds.Net/CWahi.Net
 
Wish you the best of luck Crosswinds. I remember using your services almost a decade ago.
 
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